


Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

by jonphaedrus



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-18
Updated: 2013-09-18
Packaged: 2017-12-26 23:40:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/971660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonphaedrus/pseuds/jonphaedrus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rethira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rethira/gifts).



He asks Origin, once, if his life would ever have been any different.

 

 

In this world, Mithos throws his life away for Martel, takes the blade through his chest and bleeds out in her arms as she panics, can't think of any spells to heal him, desperately tries her best to bring him back to life only for his blue eyes to go awful, awful, dull and glassy.

He has no last words, except to keep whispering his sister's name over and over again until the blood burbles out his mouth and he lays still, and she screams until she can't speak, and then her mind cracks.

There's no discrimination in his final promise, but she vows to end anybody who would hurt him for no reason than anger and revenge—he had never hurt anybody, only saved them all, and was left broken and dead in her arms on the ground.

Martel seals him in the seed of the Great Tree, forces Kratos into the pact, fits them all with crystals invented from the depth of their magic, and splits the world.

Yuan watches the love of his life go insane. Kratos has nothing he can do to stop any of them.

That version of the story ends when Yuan slips a dagger between Martel's ribs and holds her body as she slumps, smashes the crystal from her breast under the heel of his foot, and gives up his life to become the spirit of the new tree.

Anna never exists.

Lloyd is never born.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

In the next world, Martel dies in Mithos' arms, but he immolates her murderer on the spot, and then is broken on the inside—there is no part of him that recovers enough to want to destroy the world. Instead, Yuan's madness is a slow, pained build that lasts the better part of all of their lives, until Kratos is a man in his golden years, before Yuan finally cracks.

The movements Kratos knows by rote. The pact with Origin, that shatters his body and reforms him again, still old and pained. The crystals that pulse in all of their chests, and the disgust in Mithos' eyes as they watch Yuan slice the worlds in two.

Mithos whispers vengeance when Yuan tries to resurrect Martel's soul when they don't even have a body for it, leaves them. He forms the Renegades to stop Yuan, his mind lost. Kratos runs to find a human woman who could almost be Anna, has a child who could almost be Lloyd, and is forced to watch Yuan kill them both.

He slices Yuan's head from his shoulders with his own sword, smashes the crystal from his breast, and Mithos sacrifices himself to the tree, makes it live again. 

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

Mithos dies, and Kratos feels fiery hatred in his veins. Something that used to be warm in him is cold as he watches the boy that could have been him, if he had been given a chance to grow, bleed to death in his sister's arms as she sobs his name, her dress and hands stained red.

He willingly makes the pact with Origin, splits the world, makes Yuan wield the sword. The Chosen ones come and go, and Kratos makes Yuan and Martel lead their children, grandchildren, many generations, to die. He feels no remorse.

He kills a recalcitrant human test subject in Kvar's ranch, and her brown eyes stare at him in horror as his sword slices through her stomach and crushes her spine. He does not know who she is, but perhaps she could have been someone to him.

Zelos is the true Chosen One. He leads the group to destroy Cruxis.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

Anna is with the three of them, and Kratos is a mortal man. She still dies, in his arms, after she rained down lightning and fire and vengeance with wings that should have been on his back, effervescent and blue, and he is left with Lloyd and her crystal.

Dirk puts it in his hand, and leads the Chosen on her journey.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

  

When Mithos tries to split the world, Kratos does the thing he should have done, and plunges his sword through his protégé's chest, watches Mithos' lifeblood run out of his chest, holds the young man to his chest as he twitches in death, and buries him, blood matting his hands. Yuan watches over the tree, which was never withered. 

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

Yuan dies for Martel, and she kills herself from grief. Mithos, wracked by fear and anger, forces Kratos into the pact.

It backfires when Mithos tries to split the world, and the power blows him apart from the inside.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

  

Mithos finds Lloyd and Anna, and instead of letting Kvar kill Anna and Lloyd escape, he personally executes them both, laughing all the while. Even Yuan isn't strong enough to hold Kratos back, and in his rage and grief he kills them both, he kills them all.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

After two thousand years, Yuan smashes his crystal and then impales himself on his sword. Mithos must be put down, like a dog past its prime.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

  

Lloyd goes insane with the power of the Eternal Sword, and Kratos makes all the others step away, duels him to the death, and after he pulls his sword free of the still-warm body of his son, he leaves. 

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

  

 

Lloyd is raised by Mithos, and when he's old enough, Mithos removes his key crest and puts him before Kratos.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

  

Origin refuses to split the worlds, and so Mithos does it at the cost of his own life. Yuan is forced to take his mantle, hands shaking, eyes haunted and soul hollow.

He asks Kratos to kill him.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

Mithos no longer needs either of them, they only get in the way.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

  

He survives six thousand years, waiting, praying Lloyd might not die. When he sees the young man with the headband and Lloyd's hair, the same eyes, Kratos shatters.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

  

All four of them survive, and are picked off one by one through assassinations until only Kratos is left, an ancient man with the power of the universe in his bones. 

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

He loses his mind in grief over Anna. He asks to be put out of his misery.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

When Kratos tries to split the world, Yuan does what they all should have done. 

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

He attempts to stop Mithos when he begins to lose it. 

Mithos runs him through.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

Yuan does not arrive in time to put the mana back into his body, and Lloyd carries him to Derris Kharlan out of a futile hope that perhaps that will be enough mana to save him.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

Mithos' final revenge is to capture his body, and rip the key crest from his crystal. The last thing he sees clearly is Lloyd, bring brought out with nothing but two sticks to defend himself, for Mithos' amusement.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

  

When Kvar attacks, Kratos protects Anna and Lloyd long enough that they escape. He is too weak to go with them. 

He is dragged in front of Mithos, bleeding on the flagstones.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

  

 

Anna is a Hero again. He takes her place as the test subject. Kvar removes his key crest. 

Anna cannot bring herself to do it. Mithos takes him back as a toy.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.

 

 

 

 

Mithos goes mad with grief. He forms Cruxis. Yuan has the Renegades. Anna dies by his blade, Lloyd breaks his pact with Origin, Yuan's mana saves his life, they destroy Mithos. He stays with the exspheres, Martel becomes the tree, Yuan watches over her spirit.

Kratos dies on Derris Kharlan.


End file.
